the slab is poured . pumping . floating . garage floor. heart attacks

As pointed Out to me numerous times... if you dont go over the poured slab often  and quick,  again and again , you be ending up with a garage floor. So we had the concrete ordered for morning and ready with 4guys to spread and level, tamper and float.

Pouring went smooth. Pumping was good.

But when we started tampering and levelling the concrete,  Murphys law kicked in:

-concrete went off a lot faster than my groundworkers seen in quite a while

-one Of the guys (concrete pump driver) had a stroke and needed medical attention:which took 2hours until ambulance arrived...taking out 1 labourer to take care of him

 

 

 

 

 

So we where trying to get it done as best of my(our) skills. Managed levels and no massive dents (unlevel In a few spots but very minor /mm) . Managed getting it fairly smooth . But when it came to doing details/corners, concrete was already too hard to work it ... well , now we need to lay floor over it (later) anyways . Just thinking if that is already good enough to work with tiling on top or if we need to go over it with self levelling compound (I think that's overkill) .. 

First thing first :

Setting up pump in the morning took a lot longer than last time, with the guys starting at 11.00(had to go to different job first in the morning ) , the pump wasn't ready to go until 13.30, with the concrete trucks backing up at 14.00 . Pumping went really smooth and was a lot easier to spread out in place then it was with the ring beam. Also less care had to be taken as here was now shuttering that could burst . Much more relaxed.

After we had 2 x 7cubes spread , we needed to pour the remainder somewhere ... and as we lacking space for anything,  I decided to pour a little bin storage area behind the house , which now needs a step as we had A LOT MORE leftover concrete then anticipated.  

Wash out and all... it was plenty plenty

area to the right of slab....

So next was : levelling out the  concrete with laser level and tampering it down . 

This proved a real challenge, as the concrete started to go off really fast . 

And around 35% done, the driver was collapsing saying he couldn't feel half his body (arm ,leg, face, right side) and we had to organise ambulance. Naturally,  work stopped nearly completely for around 30min until this was sorted and even when continuing,  1 of the guys was staying with the driver to make sure he stayed conscious.

So the rest cracked on with tampering and floating , but by now,  the remaining 65%of he slab already became harder which made work a lot more difficult. 

Managed to get all done just about right... but when it came to smooth out the edges ... concrete already was too hard to work with. So had to leave this areas untouched and rough.